The Morning Heresy 9/21/12: Criminalize This

September 21, 2012

Your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.

Another day of troubling developments concerning the perilous position in which free expression finds itself around the world.

The EU, OIC, Arab League, and African Union release a joint statement [PDF] condemning the "Innocence of Muslims" video and "religious hatred that constitutes incitement to hostility and violence," without calling for specific measures. The OIC on its own, however, is re-upping its calls for criminalization of blasphemy.

But Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono does get specific, asking the UN and the OIC to "mull over international protocol to prevent things like this from happening again." Indonesia, you'll remember, is about to undergo UN human rights review, and is where Alexander Aan is sitting in jail for saying he had doubts about God.

Pakistan Prime Minister joins his president in calling for international blasphemy laws.

Reuters reports on a new study that says "three-quarters of the world's population live in states where practicing their faith is restricted in some way."

Paramilitary forces mustered in Kashmir to tamp down unrest over the video.

Deutsche Welle: Germany may ban the video, and generally bolster free speech restrictions, thanks to a "blasphemy paragraph" in its penal code.

The editor of the French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo, which is publishing cartoons of Muhammad, is defiant:

The accusation that we are pouring oil on the flames in the current situation really gets on my nerves. After the publication of this absurd and grotesque film about Muhammad in the US, other newspapers have responded to the protests with cover stories. We are doing the same thing, but with drawings. And a drawing has never killed anyone.

One cheer for Charlie Hebdo. I doubt that its cartoons are either laudable or responsible. In fact, I’m sure that they are neither. But if free speech means anything, it’s the right to say and publish things that other people find objectionable and irresponsible, even blasphemous.

The Pakistani cleric who accused Rimsha Masih of blasphemy has been found guilty of conspiracy.

The Age: Rimsha's case may be changing minds in Pakistan about blasphemy laws.

In other news...

Vlad Chituc takes Dave Silverman to task for his recent tweets about Islam, saying he's practicing a kind of "soft bigotry" we often see directed at our own kind.

IHEU posts its joint statement with CFI to the UN condemning Saudi Arabia for "its 30-year record of funding and promoting Islamic extremism."

Science Dailyreports on a new study that looks at why misinformation is so "sticky."

. . . the domineering leader of a renegade Amish sect, and 15 of his followers were convicted on Thursday in Cleveland of federal conspiracy and hate crimes for a series of bizarre beard- and hair-cutting attacks . .

They plod through life eating, working, shopping, breeding and sleeping, and God never seems to flit across their consciousness.

Jacquielynn Floyd at the Dallas Morning News, following Rick Perry's bizarre assertion that church-state separation in Satan's doing, says the governor's "gibberish" is beginning to "test the limits of our tolerance."

Mayor of Harrisburg Linda Thompson, who prays with city staff on the job, will address the Pennsylvania State Atheist/Humanist Conference.

Legislative action in Washington state begins to reverse the decline in vaccination rates.

Unrelated to skepto-atheism, but hilarious (and I say this as an unabashed Apple devotee and follower of The Steve, peace be upon him). As iDevice users upgrade to iOS 6, they find their maps aren't as useful as they used to be. From the London mass transit system:

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Paul Fidalgo has been communications director of the Center for Inquiry since 2012. He holds a master’s degree in political management from George Washington University, and has worked previously for FairVote: The Center for Voting and Democracy and the Secular Coalition for America. Paul is also an actor and musician whose work includes five years performing with the American Shakespeare Center. He lives in Maine with his wife and kids. His blog at the Patheos network is iMortal, and he tweets at @paulfidalgo.